Justia Internet Law Opinion Summaries

The Information Security Management Act, 44 U.S.C. 3541–49, requires that federal agencies meet information security standards. Compliance is monitored by the Office of Management and Budget. The Department of Justice purchased a license for plaintiff’s compliance product. Plaintiff participated with DOJ in seeking designation as a "Center of Excellence." Without notifying plaintiff, DOJ developed an alternative product, accessing plaintiff's database to learn the system’s architecture. OMB selected DOJ as a Center of Excellence and required agencies to purchase from COEs. DOJ’s product substituted its alternative for plaintiff's software. Plaintiff filed, in district court, a Lanham Act claim; a common law unfair competition claim; and a breach of fiduciary duty claim. Months later, plaintiff filed, in the Court of Federal Claims, claims of: breach of oral or implied contract, breach of license agreement, and breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing. The district court dismissed all but the Lanham Act claim. The Claims Court dismissed all claims, applying 28 U.S.C. 1500, which precludes it from exercising jurisdiction over "any claim for or in respect to which the plaintiff … has pending in any other court any suit … against the United States." The Federal Circuit reversed, in part, reasoning that the license agreement claim does not arise from substantially the same facts as the district court claim. View "Trusted Integration, Inc. v. United States" on Justia Law

The jury found that Amazon's 1-click purchasing system infringes plaintiff's 710 patent, entitled "Object-Based On-Line Transaction Infrastructure," which covers an online purchasing system, but that all of the claims of the patent were invalid, and that Amazon did not infringe any of the other patents at issue. The judge granted a plaintiff's post-verdict motion and ruled that the 710 patent claims were not invalid. The Federal Circuit reversed the post-verdict ruling and held that each asserted claim of the 710 Patent is invalid as anticipated and the asserted claims of the other patents remain valid and not infringed.View "Cordance Corp. v. Amazon.com" on Justia Law

The 545 patent claims a method for distributing copyrighted products (songs, movies, books) over the Internet where the consumer receives a copyrighted product for free in exchange for viewing an advertisement, and the advertiser pays for the copyrighted content. The district court dismissed an infringement claim. The Federal Circuit reversed and remanded. The patent claims a "process" within the meaning of 35 U.S.C. 101. View "Ultramercial, LLC . Hulu, LLC" on Justia Law

The rejected patent claim is one of several that describe a system for sending information (electronic mail) from an originating processor (personal computer) to a destination processor (mobile computer) using an intermediary (radio frequency receiver). Prior art systems required connection to a public switched phone line and were limited by difficulty in locating a phone jack. The Board of Patent Appeals affirmed the rejection, construing the term "destination processor," to mean the "particular end node device to which the intended user recipient of electronic mail has immediate and direct physical access when accessing and viewing electronic mail;" determining that the applicant was not entitled to claim priority; and finding that the claim was anticipated by prior art. The Federal Circuit affirmed. The Board properly relied on the written description in construing "destination processor." Nothing in 35 U.S.C. 301 prohibits an examiner from determining, on re-examination, whether a priority date was properly claimed during the original examination; such a determination was proper in this case because the examiner did not consider priority during the original prosecution. View "In re NTP, Inc." on Justia Law